I’ve been writing a lot of essays in the MLA format. One thing I found hard is to know the abbreviations for each book in the Bible in MLA format. The table below is based on the Common Abbreviations for Books of the Bible — MLA at Henry Buhl Library. They had the books in two separate PDFs and alphabetical order. Both of which are hard for me to find easily. So here’s one table showing all the books in order you find in the Bible.
| Old Testament Book | Abbreviation |
|---|---|
| Genesis | Gen. |
| Exodus | Exod. |
| Leviticus | Lev. |
| Numbers | Num. |
| Deuteronomy | Deu. |
| Joshua | Josh. |
| Judges | Judg. |
| Ruth | Ruth |
| 1 Samuel | 1 Sam. |
| 2 Samuel | 2 Sam. |
| 1 Kings | 1 Kings |
| 2 Kings | 2 Kings |
| 1 Chronicles | 1 Chron. |
| 2 Chronicles | 2 Chron. |
| Ezra | Ezra |
| Nehemiah | Neh. |
| Esther | Esth. |
| Job | Job |
| Psalm | Ps. |
| Proverbs | Prov. |
| Ecclesiastes | Eccles. |
| Song of Solomon | Song of Sol. |
| Isaiah | Isa. |
| Jeremiah | Jer. |
| Lamentations | Lam. |
| Ezekiel | Ezek. |
| Daniel | Dan. |
| Hosea | Hos. |
| Joel | Joel |
| Amos | Amos |
| Obadiah | Obad. |
| Jonah | Jon. |
| Micah | Mic. |
| Nahum | Nah. |
| Habakkuk | Hab. |
| Zephaniah | Zeph. |
| Haggai | Hag. |
| Zechariah | Zech. |
| Malachi | Mal. |
| New Testament Book | Abbreviation |
|---|---|
| Matthew | Matt. |
| Mark | Mark |
| Luke | Luke |
| John | John |
| Acts | Acts |
| Romans | Rom. |
| 1 Corinthians | 1 Cor. |
| 2 Corinthians | 2 Cor. |
| Galatians | Gal. |
| Ephesians | Eph. |
| Philippians | Phil. |
| Colossians | Col. |
| 1 Thessalonians | 1 Thess. |
| 2 Thessalonians | 2 Thess. |
| 1 Timothy | 1 Tim. |
| 2 Timothy | 2 Tim. |
| Titus | Tit. |
| Philemon | Philem. |
| Hebrews | Heb. |
| James | Jas. |
| 1 Peter | 1 Pet. |
| 2 Peter | 2 Pet. |
| 1 John | 1 John |
| 2 John | 2 John |
| 3 John | 3 John |
| Jude | Jude |
| Revelation | Rev. |
4 Responses
Missing Esther
Hi John, just updated. Thanks for letting me know. God bless.
Thank you so much Cliff for this. It is so confusing because there are so many abbreviations to choose from. I’m writing my master’s dissertation and was hunting around to find MLA bible abbreviations. Then I found this, and all my confusion was gone. Thank you again.
Kind regards
Jean
Hi Jean, I am glad you find it useful. Haha, I use this blog post so many times when I was working on my Thesis. God bless.